At the end of last semester, I got a formal letter from my departmental review committee saying that although I had made some progress over the year, "greater progress ... was needed." I wanted to crawl under a rock. But talking with my mentor (not the same as an advisor) made me want to crawl out from under the rock and keep trying. She reminded me that I had accomplished a LOT over the year, so all I need to do when I'm stuck is reflect on those things that I've already done. I can be inspired because I've already worked my way through some tough challenges:
- I finished and defended my proposal (that I thought I couldn't write).
- I worked through preliminary revisions to get my advisor's signature for the official approval document for the study.
- I obtained IRB approval.
- I obtained permission to use the MBI burnout scale, which isn't publicly available.
- I made my entire study available online with personalized links for each participant.
- I got approval from three counties to conduct research.
- I have worked with six principals so far - and visited with most - to get their teachers to participate.
- I've started to learn a new statistical method to model my data.
- And my mentor told me to make sure to include that I navigated a challenging relationship through most of that. I'll add that I maintained other important friendships and taken care of myself physically and psychologically to the best of my ability, and I'm getting better at these things while learning how to protect my time.
